The present invention relates to hand-held computing devices. More particularly, the present invention relates to control-locating aids designed for use with touch-sensitive displays.
A variety of hand-held computing devices are available which allow users to view and manipulate informational content using a touch-screen and a stylus. The touch-screen is commonly constructed by superimposing a touch sensitive screen over a back-lit LCD display. The touch sensitive screen is typically larger than the LCD display, and thus provides a touch sensitive area which exceeds the content display area. The excess area is commonly used to display fixed icons that can be touched to bring up menus or activate functions. For example, the PalmPilot device from 3COM includes a fixed xe2x80x9capplicationsxe2x80x9d icon (among others) which allows the user bring up a listing of the applications that are available on the device.
One problem with devices of such construction is that the fixed icons are illuminated poorly, if at all, by the back-lit LCD display. As a result, the fixed icons are difficult to see when the device is used in poor lighting conditions. While the use of a larger back-lit LCD display would potentially solve this problem, the use of such a display would significantly increase the manufacturing cost of the device while reducing the available real estate for other device electronics.
Accordingly, the present invention provides a portable information display device adapted for use in poorly-lit environments. The device has a housing and a touch-sensitive display screen. The housing has an enlarged gripping portion which is adapted to function as an overall directional orientation guide for the device. The display screen has a backlit portion and a non-backlit portion. Touch-responsive regions are defined upon the non-backlit portion. The touch-responsive regions are generally indicated by icons and each touch-responsive region corresponds to a particular function carried out by the device. A perimeter of the display screen is defined by a bezel. The bezel has locator structures, such as notches, which are aligned with the icons and allow users to readily identify the location of the touch-responsive regions of the display screen in poor lighting conditions.